The Return of Cuckoo’s Nest

Randle Patrick McMurphy is as charismatic and rebellious as ever, and Nurse Ratched is every bit the iron-fisted manipulative control freak with zero empathy that you remember. They and the 14-member cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are back at it with three final performances May 16 through 18 at Zero Clearance Theater in Oakridge. Directed by Loren Christopher Michaels, this version of the Ken Kesey novel and movie with the same name has the familiar clash of wills between McMurphy (Jude Anderson, whose face resembles Jack Nicholson from the 1975 Cuckoo’s Nest movie) and Ratched (Rebecca Chamberlain) for control of the ward at the mental hospital that is never named, though the movie was shot at Oregon State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, and also the novel’s setting. Before the May 17 performance, Zero Clearance Theater will have its annual fundraiser. Holly Olson of Zero Clearance notes that theater personnel fan out through Oakridge for donations of wines and homemade desserts. Bids are made before the show, and at intermission, the winners are announced. “We all eat everybody’s winnings,” she says. Olson adds that the fundraiser is important because, since the theater’s founding in 1994, Zero Clearance Theater has never written a grant application. “We’ve leaned totally on Oakridge, and Oakridge has always responded,” Olson says.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is 7 pm Friday, May 16 and Saturday, May 17; and 3 pm Sunday, May 18, at Zero Clearance Theater, 47781 OR-58, Oakridge. Tickets are $12 to $25 and can be purchased at ZeroClearanceTheater.org. The theater’s annual silent auction fundraiser is before the May 17 performance.

A Note From the Publisher

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